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David Furst: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm David Furst in for Alison Stewart. This month marks one year since the death of an iconic New Yorker, a celebrity who captured the hearts and minds of our city. Those who caught a glimpse of him in the streets or heard his mighty hoot could hardly believe their luck. Of course, we are talking about Flaco the Owl.

The story of Flaco's escape from the Central Park Zoo and his death one year later is now documented in a new exhibit at the New York Historical, formerly known as the New York Historical Society. The exhibition is called The Year of Flaco. Rebecca Klassen, associate curator of material culture at the New York Historical, joins us now to remember Flaco and to take your calls. Rebecca, welcome to WNYC.

Rebecca Klassen: Hey. Thanks for having me.

David Furst: It's great to have you here. If you want to join this conversation, if you want to talk about your Flaco stories, Flaco sightings back in the day, 212-433-WNYC. Did you ever spot him around the city? Why do you think Flaco was so popular? Give us a call. That's 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Rebecca, New York Historical is obviously dedicated to preserving and curating New York history. Why was Flaco's story interesting or important in the eyes of New York Historical?

Rebecca Klassen: He was a New York icon, really. He's a folk hero. He impacted people emotionally, psychologically, in so many ways. He really brought a lot of very interesting questions to the fore about humanity and how we relate to animals. He also highlighted these really important themes and how we feel about New York itself that it's difficult and challenging. He was a bird who was born and raised in captivity 13 years, and he's on the lam, and he faces many challenges. We can all relate to that and this idea of overcoming them and finding our own glory, I guess.

David Furst: Beyond the story of this actual bird, what does the Flaco story tell us about New Yorkers and how they see themselves in this story, perhaps?

Rebecca Klassen: Well, he does tap into a basic human element that is maybe exceeds New York itself. Just people going through difficult times and finding him as a source of inspiration to lift them out of whatever they were going through. We live in tumultuous times, so he was a source of inspiration, of magic. What does it say about New Yorkers? That we have such a huge birding community, very passionate, very centered in Central Park. He highlighted all of that gathering and community building and the way that people would share stories and connect with each other, looking at Flaco.

David Furst: Was there something about that moment too, coming out of lockdown from the pandemic? I know it wasn't like exactly at the end of that moment, but was there still some of that feeling that made us think about escape?

Rebecca Klassen: I can imagine. I think more to the point, it taps into again that elemental aspect of this idea of liberation, this idea of discovering your potential that is just alluring.

David Furst: Unlike other exhibitions that might feature a historical figure's archives or an event, Flaco was a bird. how did you decide on the objects to display as part of this exhibition?

Rebecca Klassen: The emotional heart of the exhibition is a collection of memorial objects that were left at the base of Flaco's favorite oak tree in Central Park. These are incredible letters speaking to such vulnerability and an emotional connection that people had to this bird. He was a beautiful bird. Telling these stories, they're everyday New Yorker stories about how they found joy in him. We continue to collect objects related to current events. Really, we have been since our founding in 1804. It's really of a piece. We also have a large collection of bird-related artwork.

David Furst: Bird-related artwork or very specifically Flaco-related.

Rebecca Klassen: We anticipate that there will be a Flaco-related collection. We'll be acquiring a large portion of this collection that I mentioned. We have the original preparatory watercolors for John James Audubon's Birds of America. We do interpret the art and history of birds and birding in New York on an ongoing basis.

David Furst: Listeners, we would love to have you join this conversation. Did you follow Flaco during his year of freedom around Central Park? Did you ever spot him around the city or maybe get a photo? Did you hear his hoot or did he peer into your apartment windows? What's your story? Call us or text us now at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Flaco is a Eurasian eagle owl. Am I getting that correct?

Rebecca Klassen: That's right.

David Furst: Okay, now, what can you tell us about Flaco's species?

Rebecca Klassen: Eurasian eagle Owls are among the largest owl species, akin to the Blakiston's fish owl or the great gray owl. Their ring span is about six feet, stood about two and a half feet tall. Quite large. He had tawny and buff feathers mottled in places, barred and the wings and on the tail. He had orange eyes that really captivated people seeing whether he had-- I like to think he had bedroom eyes in some of these photos and videos. Other times he looked like he was just going go catch a rat.

David Furst: He probably was.

Rebecca Klassen: He probably was.

David Furst: Now where and when was Flaco born and how did he end up at the Central Park Zoo?

Rebecca Klassen: He was born on March 15, 2010. He ended up in Central Park Zoo a couple months later, I believe. Then that fall, the zoo made the announcement that he was ready for viewing. Then he escaped on February 2, 2023, and then he tragically died on February 23, 2024. We're coming up on Sunday with the one-year anniversary of his death.

David Furst: Let's focus in on that. We have a text right now, someone saying, "Flaco's story is ours. New Yorkers from all over the world looking for freedom and love whilst facing poisons and environmental dangers. Please do not use rat poisons. Compost. Compost. Compost. Bird-safe glass must be retrofitted to all of our dangerous buildings."

Rebecca Klassen: The exhibition explores all of those factors. We look at collisions with glass provide stats such as In North America, 1 million birds die every year. A quarter million of those in New York City. We provide examples that people can touch of bird-friendly window retrofits. Those can range from what we have in the exhibition, which are vinyl dots on the surface, to bug screens on your windows.

David Furst: If you'd like to join this conversation, again, the number 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. Let's hear from Adida in Queens. Welcome to All Of It.

Adida: Hi. I'm so glad you're covering this. I'm a member of the Lights Out Committee and we are working on legislation to pass Flaco's Laws. All New Yorkers can help with this because this is how we can save future Flacos and save over a quarter of a million birds a year.

Listeners can just call their New York City Council member email, ask them to sign on and support the two Flaco's Laws bills, Intro 1073 and Intro 896. We are inching closer to passing this. This would be historic package of bills that would make New York City one of the most bird-friendly in the country. We've already passed the part of the bill that would phase out and hopefully end the use of poisons, rat poisons, which was a factor in Flaco's demise.

David Furst: Rebecca, is that something you've been hearing about as you've been launching this exhibit?

Rebecca Klassen: Absolutely. we were so glad to work with the Lights Out Coalition. We have a protest sign that they showed in one of their rallies in front of city hall, produced in 2023. We do include information about Flaco's laws and the Flaco Act.

David Furst: We are speaking with Rebecca Klassen, associate curator of material culture at the New York Historical, and we're talking about this new exhibition that she has organized called The Year of Flaco. Let's take another call. Janelle in Brooklyn, welcome to All Of It.

Janelle: Hi. I'm so excited that you're giving airspace to Flaco, one of our city's greats. I had a Flaco connection when I first moved to New York many, many years ago. I was working on indie movies, and me and a friend would go to the zoo and take portraits of animals so we could make them into fake movie posters and such. Flaco was featured on one of my favorite ones that she made called When the Owl Sleeps, which was a funny fake horror movie poster about the daytime.

Then eventually Flaco got out and was a symbol of hope and for a moment some type of New York freedom energy. I don't know, it was just interesting that we had featured Flaco on fake movie posters 15 years ago.

David Furst: Freedom energy. I like that, Rebecca.

Rebecca Klassen: Clearly he was an emblem before New Yorkers even knew about him for the most part. There was something about-- I imagine his orange eyes really penetrated through the image there on your poster. I love it.

David Furst: Do we know how he got the name Flaco, by the way?

Rebecca Klassen: I don't. I'm sure the zoo does. The announcement was made with that name.

David Furst: The announcement of his?

Rebecca Klassen: Of his arrival or his ready for viewing at the zoo.

David Furst: Let's take another call. This is Jonathan from Brooklyn. Welcome to All Of It. You have a Flaco story. Jonathan, are you there?

Jonathan: Yes. Hello.

David Furst: Oh, hello, Jonathan. Welcome to All Of It. Did you have a Flaco story?

Jonathan: I do. Actually, I'm the editor of FLACO, which just published two weeks ago from Blurring Books. It's an illustrated book. 244 pages of Flaco imagery range from photography documenting Flaco around the city, everywhere from Central Park to the Lower East Side, the Upper West Side, where he was roosting in the last months of his life, artwork that he inspired.

The latter part of the book actually focuses on the memorial objects that were left at the base of the oak in Central Park. I was part of a small group of individuals who gathered up those objects at the end of the ceremony and preserved them. We, of course, worked with Rebecca Klassen to make sure that they had a future home. I felt like those objects were really not just a portrait of our grief at his loss, but also a collective portrait of the spirit of New York and how much he affected us. I wanted to make sure that those were a part of the story as well.

Rebecca Klassen: Those are absolutely part of the story. Hi, Jonathan. How are you? [chuckles] Jonathan and the rest of the friends of Flacoa were absolutely critical to getting this exhibition off the ground. Really, the letters that he mentions were what convinced me to embark on this. My favorite one is from a woman who talks about being in a profound depression as she was recalibrating her meds such that she couldn't even get out of bed. Thinking of Flaco helped her get out of her apartment and really, I think, revitalized her soul.

David Furst: Very interesting. Not the story I was expecting to hear.

Rebecca Klassen: No, absolutely. it helped her face the unknown. She talks about being inspired to apply to law school, and that when she gets into law school, she'll think back on Flaco as her good luck charm. So many of the letters really speak to that spiritual balm, that restorative aspect that Flaco had, but also just nature and the idea of the wild, people who were grieving the loss of loved ones, people who were under treatment for cancer. It was really profound. So many things that people were going through.

I think as we go through so much now, so much tumult, it's important to think back to a moment when an owl could bring people together, bring New Yorkers together, and we could overcome obstacles, face adversity, and rise to become better versions of ourselves.

David Furst: We're going to have to take a very short break. We're having a conversation with Rebecca Klassen, associate curator of material culture at the New York Historical, a new exhibit called The Year of Flaco is on now about the beloved eagle owl who unfortunately died last year. This is on view through July 6th. if you would like to join this conversation, here's that number again. 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. Back with more in just a moment here on WNYC.

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David Furst: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm David Furst, and we're talking about The Year of Flaco, a new exhibition at New York Historical. It's on through July 6th, and we're speaking with the associate curator, Rebecca Klassen. we are taking your calls about Flaco. Did you follow Flaco the Owl during his year of freedom? Did you spot him around the city? Give us a call. 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. We tried to stop her, but All Of It producer Katie Hines just came running into the studio saying, "I must share my Flaco story." Tell us.

Katie Hines: It was New Year's Eve, 2023, and I am getting ready for a party that was actually in my building. I have a same group of friends celebrates New Year's Eve together and the party travels every year. This year, it was in my apartment building because I have good friends who live in my building. I am getting out of the shower. The window's open in my bathroom because it's really steamy. I had a million things on my mind. All of a sudden, I hear something. I'm like, "Oh, that's an owl hooting."

Then it was like something out of a cartoon where I'm like, [unintelligible 00:16:36] I actually recorded the owl hooting if you want to hear what I heard.

David Furst: Sure.

[owl hooting]

Katie Hines: That is Flaco hooting twice. There was a little more space between the second hoots. We edited it for time. Now I'm running around my apartment trying to see where Flaco is, and it turns out that he's on a water tower in the apartment right next to me. It was not a great view, but I'm hanging out my window watching him until he flew away. Then I go downstairs to the party, and I'm like, "Guys, you're not gonna believe this. Flaco was on the building across the street." The party goes on. Weirdly, it didn't stop the party.

David Furst: It stopped it for you.

Katie Hines: It stopped it for me. That was all I wanted to talk about. We're playing Scrabble. My friends know how to have a rager. Then a couple people left and texted one of my friends to say, "Oh, Flaco is now on the building across the street." There are people on the sidewalk looking up at Flaco. You can get a really good view. I grab my friend Hillary, who was sitting next to me, and she had said she wanted to see Flaco. I'm like, "Hillary, come on, let's go, let's go." I drag her out the front door of my building. Except there's a little bit of a ledge on the exit to my building. As I'm dragging her, she trips over the sidewalk ledge and completely collapses on the sidewalk.

David Furst: Wow.

Katie Hines: I'm like, "Get up. Just get up." I drag her limping and bleeding down the street.

David Furst: You're focused on what's important here. Seeing Flaco.

Katie Hines: There was a really good view of Flaco. At some point, sense came back to me, and I looked at Hillary and it was really clear that she was not okay. I took her upstairs to my apartment and gave her an ice pack. We later discovered that, in fact, she broke her nose and her wrist.

Rebecca Klassen: Wow.

Katie Hines: I dragged my injured friend like 20 yards just to see Flaco. I think she would say it's worth it.

Rebecca Klassen: Hopefully the adrenaline and the prospect of seeing Flaco abated her pain a little bit.

Katie Hines: Let's just say her husband was not happy with me. He later apologized in a text for speaking harshly with me. His words were, "I'm sorry for going on an anti-bird diatribe." I forgave him.

David Furst: Is there any other story that matches this one in your exhibit?

Rebecca Klassen: I don't know that's particularly exciting. I just really brought the party lots of drama, some injuries. I don't know.

Katie Hines: We all survived. Flaco didn't.

David Furst: That is an action-packed story. Thank you, Katie Hines.

Katie Hines: Thank you very much.

David Furst: All Of It producer, for sharing. We got a text. Maybe you can respond to this. A fast check in one of our texts saying that the annual window strike bird deaths across the United States are close to 1 billion. They heard us say 1 million.

Rebecca Klassen: Yes, I actually did say 1 billion first. Then I strangely corrected myself to 1 million. But thank you so much for that.

David Furst: That's great. Thank you for letting us know. Please call in if you want to join this conversation as well. The number again, 212-433-9692. New York City, obviously is an urban environment, but we are home to over 300 bird species. Why is New York City an important region for bird species?

Rebecca Klassen: We lie along what's known as the Atlantic Flyway, and the green spaces of New York City are very important resting stops and refueling stations for birds who are on their way.

David Furst: We also have a text here, someone saying, "I remember for a few days, Flaco came downtown to my East Village neighborhood. I imagined his flight path from Central Park to here and back and pictured that as he looked down on our city, did he weave through the tall buildings? Did he fly above them? Loved thinking about Flaco every day. So sad for demise." What about that? Did Flaco travel that far from the park?

Rebecca Klassen: He went all the way down to the Lower East Side. East Village, Lower East Side, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and then crisscrossing between the Upper East and Upper West into Central Park.

David Furst: Is that typical for a bird-like Flaco to travel that far?

Rebecca Klassen: From what I understand, in the fall months, and this is what Eurasian eagle owls in Eurasia do, but they start to expand their territory looking for a mate, looking for a place to nest. That's why he was making all those loud territorial hoots from the tops of buildings. He was projecting his voice.

David Furst: Those were territorial hoots. Those weren't, "Hello. Hey. I'm saying hi [unintelligible 00:21:23] [crosstalk]

Rebecca Klassen: Also territorial. Saying, "Hey, this is my area, and are you there?"

David Furst: Flaco escaped the Central Park Zoo on February 2nd, 2023. Going back to that moment, how did he get out?

Rebecca Klassen: From what I understand, somebody, a vandal, cut open the steel mesh of his enclosure. That would have taken some power tools. The person was pretty wily, evaded cameras, and came prepared.

David Furst: How do we square celebrating Flaco's freedom and this whole story that captured so much of our attention with the fact that it was vandalism that started this whole thing that led to his release?

Rebecca Klassen: It does open up so many interesting questions that I really don't think are easily solved. Obviously, some people have strong opinions about freedom versus captivity, but ultimately he did die. Birds in the urban environment face so many dangers. His long life was not guaranteed. That he even made it a year was really quite wonderful.

David Furst: Once Flaco did escape, how did he adjust to wild New York City life?

Rebecca Klassen: He first had to strengthen his wings. The small enclosure or relatively constricted enclosure didn't really allow him to have strong flight. From what I understand, he couldn't fly long distances. He would more hop from branch to branch and then rest. He didn't have the right landing zones and trees. He'd hit branches. It took him a little while to adjust to that.

Then also he had limited experience with live prey, so he had to figure out how to hunt skillfully. Initially, he would pounce. Eventually, he gained such facility with his flight that he could descend from a tree and capture a rat, and then bring it on up back up to the tree. It's really incredible what he was able to do, discovering what his body could have had in it.

David Furst: Right. Because of all those reasons at the time, it was a very urgent message that the zoo needed to recapture Flaco right away. The fear was wouldn't be able to take care of himself, wouldn't be able to catch live food, et cetera. Why wasn't the zoo able to recapture Flaco?

Rebecca Klassen: He was hungry at first, and he didn't know how to hunt for himself. Then once he was able to do so the incentives were less for him to enter into a trap or take the bait. He just wasn't going to take the bait.

David Furst: He was doing okay, didn't he?

Rebecca Klassen: He really was doing okay. I really can't answer so much as to why the zoo did what it did or should it have done more. That's really not for me to say.

David Furst: What was the moment when you would say Flaco went from this Central Park escapee to a full-blown New York celebrity?

Rebecca Klassen: Gosh. All along the way, it's like the initial part of the story-

David Furst: Just kept growing.

Rebecca Klassen: -it evolved. There's so many phases to his story. First, it's a crime story. It's this escaped zoo animal, which is always has an enduring appeal to us for various reasons. We love the idea of an escaped zoo animal. It's very enticing to us narratively. Then he's an owl that's making it and discovering himself, what he can do. We're discovering what he can do as well, alongside him and tracking his whereabouts. It's like watching a thing bloom in front of you.

David Furst: Watching a thing bloom in front of you. Is that something you want to capture in the exhibition as well, this emergence of Flaco's true self during this year of discovery?

Rebecca Klassen: Yes. The exhibition has 31 photographs by nine different photographers, really talented photographers, who, with their powerful lenses, are able to capture all of these milestones across Flaco's life, such as the first time he's able to hunt. His first experiences encountering other animals like squirrels and blue jays who are harassing him.

David Furst: The blue jays were?

Rebecca Klassen: Yes. It's mobbing behavior. They want him out of there. He's an apex predator [chuckles]. Crows, he's having close encounters with squirrels. All of these novel experiences for this owl that was in captivity for over a decade. Then we see the seasons change, and we see him exploring apartment buildings and having encounters with people.

David Furst: After his escape into Central Park, eventually, Flaco seemed to grow more curious about his neighbors. He started flying around the Upper East and West sides. What accounted for his movements out of the park, do you think it actually was curiosity about the surroundings? We can pretend it was us, but maybe just the surroundings.

Rebecca Klassen: As I said earlier, at a certain point he was exploring, expanding his territory, seeing what other owls were out there. Are there any of my kind? These sorts of expanding, trying to find a mate, potentially a nesting area.

David Furst: That makes it another sad element to the story as you're hooting for someone to answer.

Rebecca Klassen: He wasn't going to find anyone in the zoo. [laughs]

David Furst: We have another text here, someone saying, "I'm in New Jersey, so I never got to see Flaco in person, so to speak. But like so many, I was completely smitten by him and his new life in the wild. I followed him through social media, and I was so saddened by his passing. He was a real gift to the community."

Rebecca Klassen: He really was a gift to the community. I just want to say, watching people come into the exhibition space and looking for their memorial objects, seeing what they've left behind, and then also contributing to the guest book, it's a testament, a material testament to the profound impact that Flaco had on us then and even today.

David Furst: It's amazing because I hear from some people saying, "Oh, my goodness, you're still talking about Flaco the owl." Then a lot of other people who say absolutely just the opposite, "Why did we fall so hard for this bird? It really was something that seemed like it just exploded."

Rebecca Klassen: He was very photogenic, super cute, fluffy--

David Furst: We downplayed that. He is very photogenic.

Rebecca Klassen: Very photogenic. He gave a lot of looks. Some days he's like-- looks like just this spirit of the woods and other times he just looks so ferocious. He was easy on the eyes. Also, there's something about animals themselves. He was a charismatic one for sure. The animals teach us something about ourselves in a way that in our logical waking brains, we underestimate.

As I've been telling people recently, there's a reason why fables feature animal characters that teach us something about ourselves and about the way society works. It's as if we need animals to show us something about our humanity and they give us space to dream and hope. I hope we can resist 21st-century cynicism that tells us that this is silly or whatever and just allow someone like Flaco to tell us what we need.

David Furst: What response have you been getting about the exhibit so far?

Rebecca Klassen: Super positive. It's weird to say that like sometimes my ideal response in an exhibition is to see people cry. Really people come and they are moved by seeing images of Flaco, reading the letters, which are so vulnerable, speak to such courage, and seeing the video-- there's a compilation of 14 different video clips. Seeing Flaco is a moving bird, stretching. Phenomenal, so magical, and birds themselves are incredible. Owls.

David Furst: Birds are incredible. If you're just there to see great photos of birds, boom-

Rebecca Klassen: Right there.

David Furst: -right there. Let's hear from Valerie calling in from Manhattan. Welcome to All Of It.

Valerie: Hi there. Good afternoon. Hi, Rebecca.

Rebecca Klassen: Hi, Valerie.

Valerie: I'm enjoying listening and reminiscing. It's an emotional weekend, obviously, the one year anniversary of his death, but the celebration of his life is so much more important in the bigger picture and that's captured in the exhibit.

David Furst: Valerie, did you follow Flaco around the city? Did you have sightings?

Valerie: Oh, yes. I used to follow him when he was in the zoo and quite frankly, I thought he was a great horned owl. I didn't even know he was a Eurasian eagle owl. My parents have benches close to where he was. I moved back to New York and started following Barry the barred owl and then fell in love with just birding and then found out that he had somehow been let out of his habitat and spent the entire year really watching him untame himself. It was extraordinary. It was an amazing, amazing year that again, tragically ended.

Rebecca Klassen: I have to give Valerie super kudos, my biggest kudos because she and a small group of people were the ones who took care of the memorial while it was up. It was, I think, for three weeks. Is that right, Valerie?

Valerie: A bunch of us.

Rebecca Klassen: Monitored the weather and when it was inclement weather that was forecasted, went out and gathered up the materials, put them inside for safekeeping, and then took them back out. There's a real stewardship of this story and the care that people had for Flaco just evidenced in what Valerie and her comrades did.

David Furst: This will change the tone a little bit, but we just got a text. This is from Hillary. This is referring back to the story that Katie Hines was talking about the person who was injured. She says, "What Kate neglected to mention was the vast irony of the situation when we were icing my nose, face, and so on in Katie's apartment after being injured, Flaco was ironically perched directly across the street at the same level as Kate's apartment. The view was great." Hillary says, "My husband still curses Flaco rather than the woman who ran outside in search of Flaco." [laughs] Thank you for sharing, Hilary. I'm glad you caught that.

As a historian, when you're thinking about this whole story, how do you think future New Yorkers will remember Flaco? Will they remember Flaco? What will they think of this story?

Rebecca Klassen: It's hard to predict what people in the future will think, but what we're doing is helping to preserve the evidence of what New Yorkers in 2023 and 2024 felt for people to learn from in the future. I leave it to those 50 years from now. They can make of it what they will, but they will at least have the evidence.

David Furst: They will have the evidence. Thank you so much for joining. Today, we have been speaking with Rebecca Klassen, associate curator of material culture at the Historical. She has organized a new exhibition called The Year of Flaco about Flaco the owl's year of freedom. That show is on view through July 6th. Thank you for speaking with us.

Rebecca Klassen: Thank you so much.

David Furst: Thanks for all the calls as well.